Magnitsky can not be enforced on Vietnam

03/06/2017

Magnitsky Act, a U.S.
controversial bill which has drawn many criticisms for ruining relations
between the U.S. and other countries. But it seems to have inspired
anti-Vietnam elements and hostile forces in pressing Vietnam for human rights
and democracy. What on earth is this bill? And, why does an American bill of
law affect Vietnam in that way? Let find out in this article.

First, the Magnitsky Act, formally known
as the Russia and Moldova Jackson-Vanik Repeal and Sergei Magnitsky Rule
of Law Accountability Act of 2012, is a bipartisan bill passed by the U.S. Congress and
President Obama in November–December 2012, intending
to punish Russian officials responsible for the death of Russian lawyer Sergei
Magnitsky in a Moscow prison in 2009.

So, the bill was primitively not targeted at
Vietnam, but is it an impartial one?

Sergei Magnitsky was an auditor at a Moscow
law firm when he was detained in 2008 on suspicion of aiding tax evasion and
then found guilty of tax fraud by a Moscow court on 11 July 2013, as was his
former boss, US-born investment fund manager Bill Browder. Unfortunately, he
died in custody on 16 November 2009 at the age of 37. This sparked criticism
from the U.S. and EU countries in alleging Russia of torturing and beating him
to death. It is unclear that he was innocent or not, but his case became a
symbol of the fight against corruption in Russia.

In June 2012, the United States
House Committee on Foreign Affairs reported to the House a bill
called the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012 (H.R.
4405). The main intention of the law was to punish Russian officials who
were thought to be responsible for the death of Sergei Magnitsky by prohibiting
their entrance to the United States and their use of its banking
system. The legislation was taken up by a Senate panel the next week, sponsored
by Senator Ben Cardin, and cited in a broader review of
the mounting tensions in the international relationship.

It enables the US to withhold visas and freeze
financial assets of Russian officials thought to have been involved with human
rights violations.

But why are reactionary
elements and hostile forces so eager for this legislation? Because they and
many U.S. law-makers would want to expend the bill to global scale. According
to them, the Global Magnitsky Act would allow the U.S. government to freeze
assets of and ban visas for (non-U.S.) individuals worldwide who grossly
violate human rights.

Under the expanded Magnitsky
law, foreign individuals can be sanctioned if they engage in extrajudicial
killings, torture or other human rights violations committed against people
seeking to expose illegal government activity or defend human rights and freedoms.
It also applies to government officials or senior associates of government
officials engaged in significant corruption or people who provide material
assistance to those involved in significant government corruption. Individuals
found in violation of the law can have their U.S. visas revoked, can be
prevented from entering the U.S.; face having their U.S. assets frozen and will
be prevented from entering into transactions under U.S. jurisdiction.

While the Magnitsky law now
applies to countries outside of Russia, and could become another tool that the
U.S. could use to force other countries to respect human rights, many
anti-Vietnamese government individuals at home and abroad have also cited it
out as a tool to propagandize against the Party and State of Vietnam. Along big
mouths are Nguyễn Đình Thắng - president of so-called the Boat people SOS (BPSOS),
a man who has showed many times his nature of an opportunist in taking
advantages of naïve people. Thang even called for a day for Vietnam movement in
occasion of this bill.

People should realize that this is not
Vietnamese law, nor international law so it can not be enforced to others
outside America. And this legislation tends to political aspect than a legal
one to protect and promote human rights. The World Socialist Web Site condemned
the United States for only invoking human rights as a cover for real political
purposes. America itself should consider before issue any bill of law like
that. Those laws could cause bad impacts to its relations to other countries
and prove its hegemony and arrogance in imposing its values of human rights and
democracy./.

Chia sẻ bài viết ^^

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In response to adoption of the Magnitsky Act, the Russian government denied Americans adoption of Russian children, issued a list of US officials prohibited from entering Russia, and posthumously convicted Magnitsky as guilty.